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Entertainment Weekly
Full text by Nick Romano
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Comedian Jimmy Kimmel said on his late-night talk show monologue: "This guy, Bill Cassidy, just lied right to my face."
He was speaking of Senator Bill Cassidy, a co-author of the recently proposed “Graham-Cassidy” repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
In May, Kimmel told the story of his son who was born with a heart defect, and needed expensive care that it would not have been possible to afford if it wasn’t for his income.
At the time, Senator Cassidy went on Kimmel's show and vowed that any version of Trumpcare had to "pass the Jimmy Kimmel test." But the Graham-Cassidy version of Trumpcare fails that test. Completely. And now Mitch McConnell is planning to hold a vote on this horrible bill next week.
“He just wants to get rid of [ObamaCare] because Obama’s name is on it,” Kimmel said. “The Democrats should just rename it ‘Ivankacare.’ Guaranteed he gets on board. Can you imagine Donald Trump actually sitting down to read a health care bill? It’s like trying to imagine a dog doing your taxes. It just doesn’t compute,” Kimmel said.
Robert Reich writes on his Facebook page:
Republicans are using wildly misleading numbers to try to sell their Graham-Cassidy repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
In reality, Graham-Cassidy would drastically reduce federal funding. Estimates vary from a $215 billion cut between 2020 and 2026 to $239 billion. Graham-Cassidy would also redirect money from states that now have high Affordable Care Act enrollment (largely through Medicaid expansion) to those with fewer sign-ups. California would lose about $78 billion while Alabama would gain $5 billion between 2020 and 2026, for example.
But Cassidy’s office is saying only 8 states would see their funding decline between 2020 and 2026, and only by a small amount, and that California’s funding would actually increase.
Baloney. Cassidy’s numbers compare Graham-Cassidy's block grants in 2026 to what the Graham-Cassidy block grants would be in 2020. In other words, they're leaving out current law altogether, pretending that the Affordable Care Act was already repealed
Senator Bill Cassidy went on CNN Wednesday morning and said of Kimmel’s Monday night health care monologue, “I’m sorry he does not understand [the bill].” What ensued was Kimmel’s rebuttal:
Here’s the video:
